Construction of the new Fredericton justice building has been on hold since August, but justice minister Ted Flemming says he’s confident work will resume soon under the supervision of a project management company.
Work on the building stalled after the lone bid for the second phase of the project came in from EllisDon with a price tag $93.27 million, far exceeding the $60 million budget for the project. Flemming said that he wasn’t going to “held ransom by some Toronto construction company.” Instead the province issued another tender looking for a project manager to take on the building.
“Maybe project management will save significant amount of money,” Flemming told reporters. “I believe that it’s worth trying and I believe it will and I’m not just going to say here’s another $35 million.”
That tender has closed and the province has received three bids. One is from EllisDon, the others from New Brunswick-based companies Bird Construction and Lindsay Construction. According the province’s tender website the project has yet to be awarded to any of the three.
Flemming only took one question from reporters Friday and walked away while being asked if the budget for the project has changed and if the bids received during the latest request for proposals are more in line with the province’s expectations.
Liberal infrastructure critic Chuck Chiasson says he’s concerned the price of the project will inevitably balloon.
“My question and my concern is is it still going to come in way over what it was originally supposed to be at,” he said.
One of the first acts of premier Blaine Higgs’ government was to cancel the previous project for a new Fredericton courthouse. The Liberals under former premier Brian Gallant announced in 2017 that the Centennial Building would be refurbished, providing office space for government employees, with a new courthouse built on the same site. It was slated to be finished in 2021.
The $76 million project was cancelled in 2018, even though $13 million had already been spent on it. At the time, the government said it had saved taxpayers $60 million in construction costs. In 2019 the building was sold to a private developer looking to create residential, retail and hotel space, but that project has yet to be completed.
Green leader David Coon said he warned Higgs in a meeting after the justice building project was cancelled and that it may cost more down the road. Coon says Higgs used the project as a scapegoat, as the new premier was looking to score political points.
“He was looking for anything to show that he was really serious about tackling the debt and he was looking for some really rapid impressive results and so he went after some of the bigger items that were lined up to go right away,” he said. “That was just poor management, poor decision making for short term gain and long term gain.”
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